The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-04-21
BEEFSTEAK JOHN.
ONE OF THE OLDEST PLACES TO N
FOUND IN NEW YORK.

ONE OF THE OLDEST PLACES 10 N
FOUND tn NLw YORK.
An Eating House where Good Fare r. 0ivou
TO Hungry Folks 1t Rsmarhably CAsao
Rates, But it Requires Cufisus Axpo.
dients to Manage the 8usiness.'
NEW York, April 20. ."walk right II,
old man, we've got something for you r.
1t was q tottering chap Of seventy or %
who was thus hailed, and the speaker
stood in the open doorway Of Bowsry
restaurant. A considerable share of the
traffic in this famous street, good and
bad, is done by portal solicitation, from
the clothing store to the dime museum;
but this time the place was cheap eating
house, and l wondered at 1t. The old
man entered, and I followed him in. :
"What you want" said the waiter who
had half-seriously and half f-jocosely en-
ticed the customer in, "is Hamburger
steak" G
"Can eat itS was the nervous query.
"Can kitten lap milk ?" was the vocif-
erous reponse.
We were in locally noted establish
ment-one worth description. In war
times, keen and thrifty Switzer, whose
first name was John, opened little place
on the Bowery for the sale of pork and
beans; and by giving more beans for
less money than anybody else he &C.
quired reputation, money and the nick
name of "Pork-and-beans-John." eTws
or three years after the war, the demand
for beans having subsided, John changed
his location and his bill of fare; and pub
lie opinion, or whatever it may be called,
change his nickname. He moved few
blocks up the Bowery and devoted his
entire attention to broiling beefsteaks at
lowe rates for hungry folks. John
thought steady diet of beefsteak was
good enough for anybody, and he didn't
pretend to cook anything else, except the
few vegetables that went with the meat.
Therefore, Forgetting and putting alto
gether aside the bean period and its &C.
compartments, the Bowery fastened upon
the steak broiler the name of Beefsteak
John, and by that name has the Swiss
been known ever since. .
In the lapse of years Beefsteak John
has increased his capital and enlarged his
dining and, in Difference to the
clamorous appetites of his patrons. he
has revised and improved his bill of fare,
giving it some suggestion of variety, and
trying to suit all palates that are not
pampered beyond the bounds of reason.
Like all men of originality, he has many
imitators, and one can now find half
score of cheap restaurants in New York
displaying the sign "Beefsteak Johns.
The original shop is capable of seat
ing about 200 persons. Plain tables
are in rows along the sides, and long
one runs through the centre. No table,
cloths are used, because the Bowery does
not demand the luxuries of life, and It
is much easier to keep the wood clean
than to educate the customers to avoid
spilling the soup. For equally obvious
reasons John refrains from supplying his
temptation in the shape of silver in the
way of the Bowery. Coat sleeves and
plain iron cutlery are good enough, and
much cheaper. The fare is plain and
not too variegated, and it is the same
every day, as permanent painted signs ON
the walls sufficiently attest. A regular
dinner of soup, meat, vegetables bread
and coffee costs twenty cents; all meats
specially ordered cost ten cents q plate,
and oysters from ten to twenty cents,
according to the style of cooking.
There Is one inviolate beefsteak rule
here. Every steak is cooked with onions.
| Appeal and protest make no difference.
The steak must and shall be fried with
onions, and little wad of that odorifer-
GUS vegetable, hot and greasy, has to be
served on the plate with the piece of
meat. "Steak AND onions" is the chief
article sold here, and it can't be varied to
''steak, with an option of onions" New
ertheless, modification very remarkable
has been made by Beefsteak John in his
business, and that was what the old mans
attention was called to by the puller-in.
A steak that can be sold at profit for
ten cents has some peculiarities a0f \
own that distinguish It from Delmonico
tenderloin, and as Johns patrons get
along in years they are no longer able to
chew up the leathery food As an entire
steak, of even the limited size known In
this restaurant, cannot well be swallowed
whole, the customers had to drop of, ona
after another, as they grew toothless.
To supply long-felt want Beefsteak
John lately introduced the Hamburger
steak. That is q formation of chopped
beef, pressed into the shape of q eolid
steak, and fried brown. The dental dam
age done in days gone by or feared to-
day may be estimated from Johns state
ment that he sells and his guests devour
800 pounds of Hamburg steak daily, and
his old original beefsteak trade has fallen
off sadly. He feeds about 1 800 persons
each day, and he looks prosperous.
Although the place is run on a cheap
plan and is frequented by people who
would not be too particular about little
matters, it is reasonably clean and not at
all noisy. The walters, big fellows in
white :prons with their sleeves rolled up
to the elbows, do not bawl the orders
down the hall, like elevated brakemen
calling stations, and none of the unique
slang current in most cheap eating
houses is used in designating the dishe
An order is taken quietly and INT his
peditiously, but without ara leg II
style, and the walters treat TIA h.
patron as well as they do tn 'uiu naVo
places as this and many tfs ~ was
cheaper make it possible midsnips
man to exist in New York morAim nve
cally than he can in smaller cite pea
laborer who earns but a dollar :,
get food and lodging and have soIiied,
for tobacco, and the poor devil wa Lne
up precarious living by sellir his